November's Streaming Roulette: The Harder They Fall at Block Parties and in Nightmare Alleys

HELLO NOVEMBER. You know the drill. We point out ten random titles that are brand new or new (again) to streaming and just for fun, freeze frame them at a totally random place in the scroll bar (no cheating - what comes up is what comes up). If there's a link in the long list after the selected titles it goes to previous articles on that film.

Now I aint gonna kill you, Wiley. You and I were friends once.

THE HARDER THEY FALL (2021) on Netflix
Idris Elba (speaking, hovering over the fallen man) is the antagonist in this movie with Jonathan Majors as our outlaw hero (a rare hero named "Nat", yay!!!) in this all-star Black western. Love those long shadows. The cinematography here is by the super talented Romanian DP Mihai Malamaire, Jr (The Master, Jojo Rabbit, Youth Without Youth).

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Almost There: Alfre Woodard in "Passion Fish"

by Cláudio Alves

Alfre Woodard is one of the great American actresses of our time. If there were any doubts about that, last year's Clemency must have surely killed them for good. Still, for people obsessed with movie awards, Woodard's mastery might not be obvious. Her sole Academy Award nomination came in 1983 for a film that few remember, Cross Creek. The lack of recognition for that feature doesn't mean it doesn't deserve praise and it certainly doesn't reflect lackluster acting. But we're here to talk about a different performance.

The 1992 drama Passion Fish was up for Actress and Screenplay and it's easy to imagine that a third nomination for Woodard nearly materialized...

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Take Three: Alfre Woodard

A great 1990s duet: PASSIONFISH with McDonnell & WoodardCraig here with Take Three. Today: Alfre Woodard

Take One: Passion Fish (1992)
After dismissing a string of unsuitable nurses, recently paralysed TV actress May-Alice (Mary McDonnell) opts to hire Alfre Woodard’s mysterious Chantelle in John Sayles’ Bayou drama Passion Fish. Chantelle enters the film out of nowhere, off a bus and into May-Alice’s house. She doesn’t let on any overt details about her life, but there’s a hint of intrigue about her, something amiss and troubling. It's evident in the slightly trembling nervous manner in which Chantelle goes about her new position. McDonnell’s icy actress will gradually thaw as a result of her dependency, but not before she attempts to make life miserable for Chantelle – who’s having none of it.

Chantelle is headstrong and defiant and she doesn’t suffer defeat readily. Woodard embodies these traits, but never adheres to over-familiar actorly tics in the way she conveys them. When wheeling May-Alice outside for exercise, Chantelle leaves her to fend for herself with a sarcastic motivational response.

Mary Alice: I want to go back inside!...It’s uphill!
Chantelle: So's life!"

Instead of merely showing us McDonnell’s abandoned reaction, Director John Sayles shows us Woodard's nurse pensively thinking in a swing chair. Chantelle is not the concrete-hard carer she likes to make everyone think she is. [more on Passionfish and two more takes after the jump]

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